Ellen DeGeneres, the ace American TV host, has revealed that she and her wife Portia de Rossi relocated to the United Kingdom following Donald Trump’s re-election as United States president.
During a recent appearance at Cheltenham’s Everyman Theatre with broadcaster Richard Bacon, Ellen was asked if she had left the US because of Trump and she simply replied “Yes”.
The 67-year-old comedian explained that she and de Rossi had initially planned to stay in the UK for up to four months but decided to remain permanently after learning of Trump’s victory.
“Yes,” she said. “We got here the day before the election and woke up to lots of texts from our friends with crying emojis, and I was like, ‘He got in.’ And we’re like, ‘We’re staying here.’”
She praised life in the UK, calling it “just better” in many ways. She also contrasted it with the US, which she described as a “scary place for people to be who they are” especially after legislative efforts to reverse same-sex marriage rights.
“It’s absolutely beautiful. We’re just not used to seeing this kind of beauty. The villages and the towns and the architecture – everything you see is charming and it is just a simpler way of life,” she said.
“It’s clean. Everything here is just better – the way animals are treated, people are polite. I just love it here.
“We moved here in November, which was not the ideal time, but I saw snow for the first time in my life. We love it here. Portia flew her horses here, and I have chickens, and we had sheep for about two weeks.”
Ellen also opened up about the challenges she faced after coming out as gay in 1997, which led to her being “kicked out of show business twice”.
“If it was [better], all these other people that are actors and actresses that I know they’re gay, they’d be out, but they’re not, because it’s still a problem. People are still scared,” she added.
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